[RHClarke]

Good to see Myke and others spreading the word about CMPs...

Restoring glory
Trucks carried our soldiers to victory
Ted Whipp
The Windsor Star


Tuesday, May 26, 2009


Built in Windsor, made for war, a big green brute fills the entire repair bay of an automotive shop.

If old metal could talk, the 1943-vintage behemoth has a home-grown tale to tell. Which is exactly why Geoff Bottoms is restoring it: to illustrate a story about Windsor, its automotive industry and how both helped win a world war with trucks like this one.

This Saturday, the restored 1943 Ford F60 truck, a wartime designated Canadian Military Pattern model three-ton lorry, will join other vintage vehicles for a display on Windsor's waterfront that can provide a rollicking history lesson.

"It amazes me you have so many people who don't know their history here and the vehicles that came out of Windsor," said Bottoms. "The whole Canadian army moved in these vehicles."

Built by Ford barely a block from his shop, the truck was among hundreds of thousands manufactured by workers during the Second World War. Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and so many other suppliers and their workforce armies joined the war effort, forming what became known as the arsenal of democracy.

A restoration in progress, the truck still reflects the authentic rugged, reliability of the original design and craftsmanship built to British specifications for Canadian Military Pattern production, Bottoms said.

"Anyone could fix it in the field," Bottoms said.

The grille still sports a vintage Ford badge. The spartan cab comes with right-hand steering. Military-standard tires 43 inches in diameter and weighing more than 150 pounds each were found on eBay and shipped from Mississippi.

Bottoms has spent a year finding, fitting, buying, bending and making parts. To carry people and cargo, he designed a large enclosed cabin, drawing from historical photos and research.

The massive machine likely didn't get overseas but may have been used for military duty in Windsor. After the war, the truck became surplus like so many wartime vehicles sold later for whatever someone would pay, Bottoms said.

The truck hauled, among other things, tomatoes in Leamington where Bottoms discovered it a year ago. Where others saw a hopeless mess of rust with barely the frame intact, Bottoms saw potential for long-held plans to restore a military vehicle and some of Windsor's past.

The truck at least came with a serviceable four-wheel drive drivetrain, Ford flathead V-8 engine with 100 horsepower, even a fuel pump that works. Bottoms, who operates Geoff's Automotive, at 1390 Drouillard Rd., has restored over the years 20 vehicles, mostly British cars.

He discovered a wider military community and met people, like Mike Timoshyk, just as concerned about preserving vehicles and their historic past.

Timoshyk spent 311/2 years in the Canadian navy, moved from British Columbia to Windsor and joined the naval reserve here. He owns two vintage Jeeps and is restoring a 1942 Ford F15A truck, designated a Canadian Military Pattern 15 cwt.

Built and used in Windsor to train troops, the truck later on was used in Northern Ontario as a snowplow.

Restoration began 18 months ago and included making tool bins and a tailgate built to specs from scratch. Painted with dashing desert camouflage colours, the vehicle honours the Allies' Italian campaign in which a family member served.

Lt. Col. Morris Brause, commanding officer of the Essex Kent Scottish Regiment, lauds such restoration projects.

"When you do something like that, it makes history more meaningful," Brause said. Such supply trucks are the "unsung heroes that provided a lifeline that kept the soldiers going."

Windsor made and restored, both trucks will soldier on for military parade and display duty. They're road-worthy, requiring safety inspections and licences but not emission tests because of age.

They also take skill to drive. They may not reach highway speeds but they're big, heavy and really can go through brick walls. They have manual brakes and steering, the accelerator is in the middle, brake pedal on right, clutch on left.

Shifting gears takes co-ordinated double clutching, and Timoshyk says he prepares to downshift one block ahead.

A conversation starter, the truck can also stop traffic, as motorists wonder what the heck it is, he said.

Veterans know all too well. "They either pat it or curse it," Timoshyk said. They may remember wartime circumstances and gruelling hours in rough and ready machines.

Bottoms says of the people who see the big green truck in his service bay, "They find it unbelievable it was built a few feet from this very shop."

In all, 857,970 wartime vehicles were manufactured in Canada by automakers here and in Oshawa under the Canadian Military Pattern for the Second World War, says Mike Timoshyk, a Windsor naval reserve officer.

Pooling their design and engineering, automakers and suppliers brought vehicles into production within months. The popular website dedicated to Canadian military vehicles - www.mapleleafup - explains simply: "They were a miracle of production."

Timoshyk brings his desert camouflage-coloured F15A CMP truck to events and groups, including school children, to reveal Canadian military history. "The youth don't know the connection between the industry and horsepower of Windsor and the contribution to the war effort," he says.

twhipp@thestar.canwest.com

SEE FOR YOURSELF

Windsor's first combined military tattoo and sunset ceremony Saturday will feature bands, drill teams, highland dancers, choirs and the Canadian Forces' Skyhawk parachute team.

The event on the riverfront festival plaza in front of the casino marks military traditions for the gathering of troops at sunset and begins at 7 p.m.

A military equipment display on the waterfront continues through the afternoon, beginning at noon. In nearby Dieppe Gardens, a commemoration of the Korean war veteran monument is planned for 1:15 p.m.

ONLINE

windsorstar.com

Geoff Bottoms and Mike Timoshyk discuss the restoration process.